Better-Looking Skin Through Massage! How to Tone, De-Puff, and Get Glowing in Minutes

Oh hello! It’s just me, your friend Krista, the girl who spends hours upon hours in her fleece onesie footie pajamas watching makeup and beauty tutorials online, late at night, when regular people might be sleeping. I was doing just that around 2 a.m. on a weeknight not long ago when I saw a video that promised to show me a “facial exercise” that would combat puffy under eye circles. “Yeah right,” I thought, while simultaneously clicking on it. Well, it was weird—a nice lady showed me how to make a big “O” with my mouth while gazing upwards at the ceiling without moving my forehead. This was supposed to improve the circulation on my face and help de-puff my eyes. Hmm. If you, like me, spend normal sleeping hours watching obscure beauty videos, you might have eye bags that you need help de-puffing.

So, I fell down the rabbit hole, clicking on endless “facial exercise” and “facial massage” videos that promised to give me a slimmer, more radiant face, detoxify my skin, drain fluids, and boost my circulation. It reminded me of Eve Lom, founder of the eponymous brand, who swears by a weekly DIY facial massage to improve the complexion (learn how to do Lom’s technique here). With so many reputable industry folks in on the idea, I couldn’t be crazy for starting to believe it all. In the end, it was this video that got me, in which Sydney Australia–based vlogger Wengie demonstrates a facial massage trick popular in Asia: you use a Chinese ceramic soup spoon and beauty oil to release tension, drain excess fluids, and de-bloat your face. To me, Wengie looked great—she said she swore by this massage, and apparently found that her face had lost three millimeters after measuring it before and after the massage. After hearing that, I was in.

I sprang up, grabbed a ceramic soup spoon and my Indie Lee Moisturizing Oil, and headed for my bathroom mirror. Balancing my laptop on top of the toilet, I re-watched Wengie’s video again, pausing it while I worked. The main idea is this: firm upward strokes using the spoon, until the very end, when you massage everything down your neck to flush out toxins and drain fluids from the lymph nodes. (Make sure you limit the massage to ten minutes per session, so that you don’t irritate or damage the skin.) When I was finished, my face glowed with oil, but I didn’t see any other noticeable difference.

Until I woke up. My face really looked slimmer! Really! My jaw looked more defined, my cheekbones stood out (slightly) more. IT WORKED. I decided I would follow Wengie’s plan and do the facial massage once a week. I mean, why not? It’s free, it feels good, and it works!

Fast-forward three weeks, and I’m still doing the facial massage and loving it. My skin likes this very much, and I swear to you that my (usually quite soft) jaw line is improving definition-wise. I’ve also paired the spoon technique with this facial workout from fitness vlogger Tracy Campoli, designed to tone up a double chin and tighten the jaw line. I mean, while I’m at it, right? It’s fun, and it might just be doing something (no noticeable results yet, but I’ll keep you posted). I’m now a true believer. Facial massages and exercises could be the thing my beauty routine was missing.